A month went by.
During that time, many dramatic things occurred in the war between Seven Blood Eyes and the Seazombies. The Seazombies made several full-scale assaults on the Merfolk Isles, but failed to take them. They could do nothing but watch as Seven Blood Eyes grew more deeply entrenched, bringing in more magical devices and more allies. The islands were becoming an increasing threat to the Seazombies.
However, the Seazombies had some victories of their own. Thanks to their diversionary tactics, they successfully took control of the Pearl Archipelago, which became their new command base. The taboo pills that Seven Blood Eyes had buried on the islands were all dug up by the Seazombies after a very thorough search of all the islands in the archipelago. For the Seazombies, it was a military victory. For Seven Blood Eyes, it was an embarrassing slipup.
And in war, slipups could be fatal. For about half a month, Seven Blood Eyes was put into a passive position, and thus, there were two dangerous Seazombie offensives that almost succeeded in taking the Merfolk Isles. On one occasion, the peaklord of the Third Peak fell into a Seazombie ambush and nearly perished. Only by using a technique called Grue Death Substitution did he manage to make his escape, badly wounded. In addition to that, the peaklord of the Sixth Peak was also ambushed and seriously injured.
Ten Gold Core elders were wounded to the point of being on death’s door. All of those things were a huge blow to the morale of Seven Blood Eyes, and resulted in an immediate decline in mission participation. This was one big flaw in Seven Blood Eyes’ methods of operation. When they had the upper hand, the disciples were as ruthless as wolves or tigers. But when things didn’t go well, it was easy for the disciples to lose courage. And when that happened, it wasn’t easy to recover.
After the Seazombies’ trap successfully won them the Pearl Archipelago, Seven Blood Eyes launched a counterattack. It was half a month later in the middle of the night. Intense rumbling sounds echoed out, and Xu Qing, who was just coming back to Meegah Island from a minor mission, looked out and saw numerous mountain peaks rising up from the sea.
Together, they formed a majestic mountain range.
As the seawater seethed, the mountain range continued to rise, until it seemed like a spine. Using his snakeneck dragon, Xu Qing looked under the water and realized it was actually a huge beast. In fact, that beast was familiar. It was a sealizard! And those mountains were the sealizard’s back!
It was so massive that it made the islands of the Pearl Archipelago seem like insignificant ants. The sealizard simply rolled over, and the Pearl Archipelago was completely smashed into oblivion. Afterward, the sealizard, who had only revealed part of its back above the surface of the water, left.
That sealizard attack was a huge shock to the Seazombies. An entity like that was multiple levels above them, and obviously was not something Seven Blood Eyes could casually call on for help. Yet it had come, and it had obviously been targeting the Pearl Archipelago.
Even Xu Qing was shaken by what happened. It gave a big morale boost to Seven Blood Eyes. What was more, there was an official announcement regarding the matter. The announcement made it clear that the sealizard had come at the behest of the peaklord of the Fourth Peak. Many years ago, that peaklord had been friends with the giant lizard, so it had come to destroy the Pearl Archipelago as a favor.
According to the official announcement, the entire thing had been arranged in advance. In other words, the entire situation with the Pearl Archipelago had been a double trap. Seven Blood Eyes had encouraged the Seazombies to attack it, and had buried taboo pills there to lure them in. The Seazombies had fallen right into the trap.
The end result was an instant boost in morale for Seven Blood Eyes.
Of course, Seven Blood Eyes disciples weren’t stupid, and the Seazombies were inherently schemers. It didn’t take much analysis for anyone to come to the conclusion that the Seven Blood Eyes leadership’s story was probably only partly true.
Besides, if Fourth Peaklord could get a giant sealizard to destroy an entire archipelago, then why not send it to attack the Seazombies’ fortified islands or their main island?
So the matter led to a lot of questions, and many people assumed it had something to do with the Seven Blood Eyes patriarch. As for what was really going on, no one but the Seven Blood Eyes leadership knew. Regardless, the Pearl Archipelago was gone, and the Seazombies there had been routed.
Seven Blood Eyes took advantage of the situation to launch assaults on the Seazombie positions surrounding the Merfolk Isles. This also was the call for a general offensive. The Seazombie’s main army was constantly battered backward and forced into defensive fighting. Seven Blood Eyes pressed the assault, forcing the battle lines further and further away from the Merfolk Isles, and closer to Seazombie territory.
Now, the only thing between the Seven Blood Eyes forces and the Seazombie’s main island were their seven fortified islands. That was their last line of defense. The close proximity of the enemy put a lot of pressure on the Seazombies. However, due to their fierce counterattacks, the fighting eventually reached a stalemate.
There were casualties on both sides, though the Seazombies had it worse.
That said, Seven Blood Eyes also suffered horrendous casualties. As a result, there was already a wave of applications from disciples wanting to leave the fighting. Although the sect didn’t refuse such applications, they did combat the trend by offering greater rewards for missions, including the first batch of destined opportunities for core formation. They also added in two trump cards. The first were fifty magical treasure projections. Every disciple who reached the top fifty would be able to call upon a projection of the sect’s magical treasure.
Magical treasures were legendary items, each one of which would have heaven-shaking, earth-shattering power. In fact, they were so unimaginable that Seven Blood Eyes only had one such item. .𝘤𝑜𝑚
But even the projection of that item would be incredibly shocking. The news caused a big stir among the disciples participating in the war. However, the second trump card was even more astonishing. And that was… the patriarch would accept ten Foundation Establishment disciples as inner sect apprentices and three Gold Core cultivators as successor apprentices! The apprentices would be selected based on the missions they had completed and how many Seazombies they killed.
This news caused such a commotion among Seven Blood Eyes disciples that many who had applied to leave the war changed their minds and stayed.
After all, for years, the patriarch had not accepted any apprentices. And considering he had just experienced a breakthrough, it was obvious that whoever he selected as apprentices would benefit spectacularly.
Getting into that position would make one like the carp leaping over the dragon’s gate. An inner sect apprentice would be superior to elders, and would stand on a similar footing as the peaklords. And a successor apprentice was an even loftier position.
The news wasn’t enticing to just Foundation Establishment cultivators. Even the Gold Core cultivators were moved. Not even they were sure when the sect would ever offer rewards like this again.
From all of this, it was possible to see how determined Seven Blood Eyes was to defeat the Seazombies.
Xu Qing was moved, but he quickly suppressed thoughts of pursuing such lofty goals. Although the rewards were amazing, he knew that there were a lot of strong people in the sect. He was a far cry from being the strongest in Foundation Establishment, as each mountain peak had disciples with three life flames.
With people like that around, it would be hard to secure an apprenticeship without putting his life on the line. That said, he was confident he could make it into the top fifty, and thus get that magical treasure access.
The overall ranking for the war effort was different from the kill count. The overall ranking took into consideration both missions and kill count, and was also weighted based on the type of mission and its requirements. Because of how Xu Qing had gone a bit wild earlier trying to inflate his kill count, his name wasn’t far from being in the top fifty.
“Seventy-third,” he murmured as he accepted another mission.
Another half a month went by, during which time Xu Qing’s name climbed up to fifty-ninth. At the same time, as he slaughtered more Seazombies, his dharma apertures continued to open. He was now at forty-four. As he progressed, he needed more and more souls.
One day, as he had just accepted a reinforcement mission, a personal summons appeared in his identity medallion.
It was obviously a message from someone important, as it immediately dismissed all other missions, even the one he had just accepted. In fact, he instantly received the reward for that mission, despite not having done a single thing.
“Seventh Peak Foundation Establishment disciple Xu Qing, come to Joine Island and report to the command tent there. The vice-peaklord of the Seventh Peak wishes to see you!”
Xu Qing was stunned. After mulling the matter over, he had some ideas about what it was about, but couldn’t be sure. After all, he had never even heard of there being a vice-peaklord. However, there was no doubt that the summons was authentic. And as he thought about it, the message repeated itself several times with the same information. Obviously, there was no way he was going to get out of this. Finally, he headed toward Joine Island.
Although he did not enter the profound radiance state, he still moved quickly. Before long, he saw the island ahead of him, and the huge eye in the middle of it all. This was where Seven Blood Eyes’ main command base was.
Normally speaking, disciples couldn’t even get close to this place without being summoned. As Xu Qing neared, he felt a terrifying divine will lock onto him. Also, the massive eye shifted to look at him.
Xu Qing stopped in place and presented his identity medallion. “Disciple Xu Qing here at the summons of the Seventh Peak’s vice-peaklord. I seek an audience.”
His identity medallion glittered, and the huge eye blinked three times. Then a teleportation power swirled around him, and before he could react, he vanished.
Inside of the huge eye was a magnificent grand hall, which was where Xu Qing had been teleported to. As he materialized, he heard the voice of a woman speaking.
“So, you’re Xu Qing?”